Family First
by wolfsrainrules
Summary: It was when Xanxus saw Tsuna save his lightning child that Xanxus knew this young man would forever be about family before Famiglia, and Xanxus felt hope.
**Alright. This one is another of Bleach-ed Nat-su's summary prompts. I don't own KHR. And AU. (As in Xanxus' reasons for wanting the title are different)**

 _ **Summary: It was when Xanxus saw Tsuna save his lightning child that Xanxus knew this young man would forever be about family before Famiglia, and Xanxus felt hope.**_

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Xanxus was _tired._

His boys were _tired_.

The Varia was _tired_.

Vongola was falling apart from the inside and Xanxus and his boys seemed to be the only ones that noticed or _cared_ about it. It was _infuriating_.

It hadn't always been that way of course- when he was young, before his brothers had been killed, he remembered a time of warmth and happiness and the halls _singing_ with the wealth of healthy thriving Flames. He remembered when Vongola had been about family before Famiglia. He remembered the days where Vongola and all its inner workings _worked together_.

Then his brothers were killed and it all started to crumble from the inside starting with the old man that called himself his father. The ninth had drowned in grief- as Xanxus' had- but unlike Xanxus he never _quite_ managed to pull his head above the current. The people around them had taken advantage of it and so Vongola began to fall.

Xanxus _**refused**_ to allow that to happen.

He _loved_ the Vongola for all that he raged at the Ninth and his Guardians for the lies. How could he not? Vongola was where he had learned to love, to trust, where he had learned about _family_. It meant so _much_ to him. It had meant much to his brothers who were now gone.

So Xanxus refused to allow Vongola to fall.

 _Especially_ to a civilian brat.

He'd done his research. (If they wanted the brat hidden Iemitsu should really _not_ brag to everyone with ears) The brat the Ninth wanted to hand Vongola over to didn't have anything going for him.

He had no experience with the Vultures that circled the mafia, he was naïve, inexperienced. He had no combat or fighting experience with even _civilians_ much less the people who walked the Underworld. His grades left much to be desired, and from what he could gather of the seven brats, four were civilian, two were mafia-experienced, and the other two were in-between but lacking in _real_ experience. If the Sawada brat managed to get the reins, Xanxus was sure Vongola would _burn_.

And even while it was falling apart from the inside, even while it was crumbling, even as tired as he was trying to deal with all the issues, Xanxus would _not_ see the little shit cause Vongola to topple.

Even if he had to set everything up so he could officially _**take**_ Vongola into his own hands.

Even as tired as they all were.

O~O~O~

When the battles start, Xanxus expects a slaughter. He expected the brat and his guardians to topple like dominos in front of his boys.

That…doesn't quite happen.

The first battle between Suns has the little shit civilian pulling a win. Which kind of pisses Xanxus off, because he _knows_ Lussuria is better than that. He had known his boys were tired but to lose against a _civilian_?

The next battle…the next battle gives him a spark of hope. Not because Leviathan wins (even though it had been _close_ between the 20 year old Lambo and Xanxus' Lightning) but because if the Sky-Brat's actions.

Tsunayoshi didn't even _hesitate_ when his brat was in danger. The Sky had lunged into the battle with no regard for the rules, or dangers, easily punting Levi across the roof and away from his Lightning brat.

And Xanxus gets a glimpse of an enraged Sky protecting a cub. He gets a glimpse of the strength in the brat's Flames. For an _instant_ Xanxus sees his older brother in the brat, when Xanxus had been young and his brother had stepped between him and an assassin as Tsunayoshi stepped now between his youngest and Leviathan.

For a _moment_ Xanxus gets to see the Vongola as it was- when it was about family before Famiglia. And he feels a spark of _hope_.

But Xanxus shakes it off- or rather pushes it back. He refused to acknowledge it.

The brat would have to _**earn**_ his place as Decimo no matter the hope he had given Xanxus. Even if the brat would help make Vongola was it used to be, he'd have to be strong enough to stand at its head and defend his choices. So he would have to win against Xanxus and his boys before Xanxus acknowledged that glimmer of hope in his chest. And if the brat _could_ beat him and his boys…maybe he would have a _chance._

Xanxus didn't expect much despite that glimmer in his chest. He expected to win. He expected that the brats with their various backgrounds wouldn't stand against Varia Fucking Quality.

During the Storm battle, Xanxus feels that flicker of hope grow. The Varia had won, as expected, but…

The brat has chosen his Guardian over a win again. He'd screamed at his Storm, make it clear that he valued the brat's life over a win. Over the possibility of getting a hand up against the Varia. He'd tossed that away without thought.

Xanxus can feel the beginnings of respect flicker to life for the brat.

The Rain battle is a surprise. Not only because the _civilian_ brat wins against his Second in Command, but because _after_ winning the Rain brat moves to help his Second out of the arena.

Xanxus can feel that flicker of hope growing to a fire. These brats…they may not have the experience, but they're what Vongola _should be_. (It helps that he can still sense his Rain despite the fact he had fallen into the water bleeding while a giant shark was with him after kicking the other brat to the winning floor.)

Xanxus shifts, his Flames flickering as he watches the Mist battle. He has expected the Mukuro brat- that was who official channels claimed the Mist Guardian was. Instead he sees a civilian girl walk into the field.

She puts up a fight, Xanxus will give her that, but she is overwhelmed by Mammon. And then the tide turns as the Mist Xanxus has expected- Mukuro- makes his appearance. He watches with surprise as the shitty Mist pulls a win over his Mist.

These brats are full of surprises.

And then the Cloud battle is upon them.

Xanxus has shifted his plans. If these brats win, he wants them to be prepared for the underhanded methods of the Underworld. He wants them to expect the traps and tricks that lurk around every corner. And he wants his old man to witness it all. Hence the choice he made in regards to it.

He just didn't expect the other brat's Cloud to be as powerful as he was. It's a mark of a _strong_ Sky to pull a Cloud to them at all. But as the strength of the Cloud grows so too does the required strength of the Sky to pull them in.

And Xanxus had seen the words exchanged between the Cloud and his Sky before the Cloud stepped onto the field. (He was an accomplished lip reader after all) That Cloud was _loyal_ for all the aloofness he portrayed. Loyal and _strong_. The brat wins.

And Xanxus puts that 'trick' into motion, the underhanded scheme that is so common in the Underworld.

And the battlefield resets itself, the rings spit again between the two teams.

At the end of it all, when the little civilian shit stands victorious over the Varia, Xanxus allows the hope in his heart to flourish into a bonfire.

He will live to see Vongola become what it should always have been. What it should have remained.

Family before Famiglia.

The halls will soon sing with healthy thriving Flames again.

Xanxus is glad.


End file.
